Q&A: 'True Blood' Actor Todd Lowe on the Importance of Playing a Human

Todd Lowe as Terry Bellefleur on 'True Blood.'

After spending much of True Blood on the periphery of the major plot lines, Todd Lowe has found himself at the center of his own dramatic story arc this season. Flashbacks revealed that during his tour of duty, Iraq War veteran Terry Bellefleur (Lowe) killed a civilian woman while high and under orders from his commanding officer, Sgt. Patrick Devins (Scott Foley). As the season progressed, the two former Marines continued to be haunted by the spirit of their Iraqi victim in the form of a mysterious smoke monster called the Ifrit. In last Sunday's episode, Terry silenced his demons for good, at an enormous cost: he shot and killed the cowardly Patrick, effectively vanquishing the Ifrit and making his family safe again.

Texas native Lowe checked in with Rolling Stone recently to chat about playing a character with PTSD, his new honky-tonk band and his latest gig acting alongside Will Smith.

One of the defining aspects of Terry Bellefleur has always been the fact that he suffers from PTSD. Did you do any first-hand research on it?
I knew some people growing up – some family members, some friends of the family – who had done time over in Iraq and done a couple of tours, and I kind of based it on them. I didn't do too much medical research into it – I'm leaving that up to the writers to determine what's going to happen – but I didn't know until the beginning of Season Five, when Alan [Ball] sent me an e-mail saying what was going to go on with my character, what had actually happened over there. I didn't know in Season One that I had shot an innocent woman while high. So having that at the beginning of this season, like, "Ok, you did do something just terrible and nightmares are going to plague you forever." That is the cause of why he's been [the way he is], among other horrors I'm sure he saw over there. That's the one that was the most personal.

In shooting that scene where Terry kills the Iraqi woman, you guys were outfitted in full-on Marine gear. Were you able to get in any training during rehearsals? Was it impossible to move around?
Well, what I was hoping for – but it wasn't logistically possible – was that we could've timed it where I could've shaved my beard and cut my hair. But because we also had to shoot stuff that was happening in the present day, it just wasn't logistically feasible. So we put pins in my hair and tucked it up under a headband. I had my chin strap kind of covering my beard, and they made the decision that, "Well, you guys have been out there for a long time, you haven't had time to shave." But everyone I know who's a Marine said, "It doesn't matter: We shaved every morning." With a dry razor and using an Evian bottle or whatever – just with the little water that [they] had. It's a very important thing. I hope I don't catch too much flak from cousins I have who are actual Marines that we weren't doing it right. Hopefully they'll overlook that.

But they gave us a half-hour boot camp on how to walk and how to hold a rifle, and how it's going to feel when we're shooting, like, "This is the way it recoils, this is the way you hold it, the way you scan a perimeter.…" So we got a really quick, basic lesson on that.

Since the Ifrit was something that had to be added in post-production, what was your reaction when you saw the finished product?
I'm not a big fan of CGI, personally – I'd rather see old stop-animation that they used to do with monsters or even somebody in a monster suit – but that being said, I liked the way [the Ifrit] moved around and engulfed Private Eller. So all in all, I'm happy with it.

In previous seasons, Terry has had more of a comic-relief role, but now he's got this major dramatic arc. Is that something you were hoping for? Or do you prefer doing comedy?
I guess I do prefer doing comic roles, but you have to play it truthful and the drama that I've been playing this year has been great. I haven't been able to find, really, moments of levity. Even me having to grab Patrick's hand and put it on the table for that ridiculous séance at Lafayette's was, like, totally serious. So you play that in all seriousness, but it still kind of comes with a little bit of a chuckle.

Speaking of that séance scene in last week's episode, Nelsan Ellis did such a fantastic job – how did you guys keep a straight face?
It's really hard, especially when he had to memorize those few lines in Arabic, and he's sitting there shouting and getting really into it – spit's coming out, people getting hit in the face – but he's so powerful, it's hard not to flinch when he really turns it on like that. But, yeah, him rattling those bracelets – we got all that silly stuff out in the rehearsal. Once you do a scene 10 times, it's not quite as funny anymore.

The human population on True Blood is rapidly dwindling, especially now that Tara's been made a vampire. So would you like to see Terry go supernatural? Or do you think he works best as a human?
I think we need humans in there for balance – to give supernatural characters more weight. If there are no humans left, it becomes like a Dungeons and Dragons game; there's gotta be something that grounds it in reality. So I'm happy staying human; whatever the writers want to do with me is fine. If they want to at the end of the series reveal that I'm the Easter Bunny, I'll take that and play it as straight as I can. But no, I prefer staying human. All of Terry's monsters are on the inside.

In your opinion, as someone who is from Texas originally, who in the True Blood cast – who is not from the South – does the best Southern accent?
Ryan Kwanten.

You had a country-rock band called Pilbilly Knights. Are you still playing music?
I have a different band now. Everyone in [Pilbilly Knights] except for me had children and, with my shooting schedule, we couldn't really book gigs. So I play with an outfit now called L.A. Hootenanny. There's about 12 or 13 of us and we have a weekly gig at this hip spot in downtown Los Angeles every Thursday.

Are you the frontman?
Pretty much; there's a lot of us. I guess I carry the majority of the work, as I've written a few more songs than everybody else. They're catching up with me. And if I'm not there, the show can still go on. But I'm there every chance I can.

How would you describe the band's style?
We're a honky-tonk bar band. We cover Eighties pop songs and we got three hours to kill, so we have to have a lot of covers. We do a Dr. Dre tune, we do a New Order tune. We just got to keep the crowd moving.

What New Order and Dr. Dre songs do you do?
We do "Temptation" by New Order, and we do "The Next Episode." It's Dre and Snoop, a little duet.

Are you guys recording?
Yeah, we have an EP that's gonna be coming out. There are so many people on it mixing this thing – thank God I don't have the job. It's like mixing Chinese Democracy. It's taking forever. I'm waiting for them to get done with it so we can put it out and start getting booked at festivals and stuff.

Do you have a release date?
I'd say we're a month away. L.A. Hootenanny is the working title. 

You went back to your Gilmore Girls roots recently, making an appearance on creator Amy Sherman-Palladino's newest series, Bunheads. Will we be seeing Davis the one-eyed plumber again?
Wasn't that great? Hopefully – I guess we're waiting on a pickup. I think they made 10 episodes and they're waiting to see if they order some more. From indications, they seem to like what I did, and I loved working with Stacy Oristano [Truly Stone, Davis' love interest]. She's awesome. So I hope they do see us again.

Now that True Blood has wrapped for the season, any other projects in the works?
I worked a week on the M. Night Shyamalan movie After Earth. It's coming out next year – I guess it's gonna be a big Will Smith summer blockbuster. I had a scene with Will and his son Jaden, and we shot it in Philadelphia. It was the first time I've ever worked on a green screen, and I had a fantastic time. Will Smith is the biggest movie star I've ever met, and he couldn't be more gracious. I play a wounded veteran – but it's set years in the future, in space, and I'm in a levitating wheelchair.

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Why the Rolling Stones Aren't Playing the Olympics

Why the Rolling Stones Aren't Playing the OlympicsBand not ready to return to the stage yet, says Mick Jagger $(document).ready(function() { $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .email-content').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').hide(); } ); $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .print-page').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').hide(); } ); }); By

Unlike Paul McCartney, Blur and other U.K. bands, the Rolling Stones won't be playing the London Olympics this year. "I didn't think, to be honest, we were quite stage ready," says Mick Jagger in a new interview with ITN to mark the band's 50th anniversary of their first gig. "We haven't played in a long time and we weren't really stage-ready, and it's a very big gig and it's very risk-taking. I didn't think the band themselves felt they were really ready to do it at this point."

Jagger did note that the Stones aim to return to the stage soon to celebrate their anniversary. "We hope we're going to do some gigs this year," said Jagger. "We haven't actually finalized them, but we hope we're going to do some gigs. We've done rehearsing, hanging out together and all that discussing so you know we've been seeing eachother quite a lot."

Meanwhile, guitarist Keith Richards spoke with the BBC about the milestone, which the Stones will celebrate today with a photo exhibition at Somerset House in London to preview their new book, ROLLING STONES: 50. "Nobody ever expected anything like this," Richards said of the band's remarkable half-century run. "Especially in those days, a band was likely to live two or three years. you hoped for a good time and that was that."

For more Stones anniversary viewing material, here's a Sky News segment featuring conversations with both Mick and Keith, as the two talk separately about their working relationship and early antics.

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Q&A: Malin Akerman on 'Rock of Ages' Love Scenes and Playing Debbie Harry

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Why Bon Iver Isn't Playing the Grammys

Justin Vernon of Bon Iver attends the Bushmills 'Since Way Back' party at The Wooly in New York.

Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon says his band turned down an offer to play the upcoming Grammy Awards telecast because they were not comfortable with the required collaborative appearance. "We kind of said 'fuck you' a little bit," the singer told Billboard.

The problem, said Vernon, was not the musicians with whom Bon Iver was being asked to perform. "Awesome people," he said, without naming them. "People I would love to play a song with. But you know what? Fuckin' rock & roll should not be decided by people that have that job [booking the show]. Rock & roll should be the fuckin' people with guitars around their backs."   

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Why Bon Iver Isn't Playing the Grammys

Justin Vernon of Bon Iver attends the Bushmills 'Since Way Back' party at The Wooly in New York.

Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon says his band turned down an offer to play the upcoming Grammy Awards telecast because they were not comfortable with the required collaborative appearance. "We kind of said 'fuck you' a little bit," the singer told Billboard.

The problem, said Vernon, was not the musicians with whom Bon Iver was being asked to perform. "Awesome people," he said, without naming them. "People I would love to play a song with. But you know what? Fuckin' rock & roll should not be decided by people that have that job [booking the show]. Rock & roll should be the fuckin' people with guitars around their backs."   

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Grateful Dead Drummer: Jerry Garcia 'Wasn’t Really Happy Playing' at Band's End

Grateful Dead's Bill Kreutzmann performs with 7 Walkers on Jam Cruise 10.

Leaving the Grateful Dead behind in 1995 was as much a defining force in drummer Bill Kreutzmann's life as was forming the band with Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan 30 years earlier. And, in some ways, he's still dealing with the fallout. As Kreutzmann discusses exclusively with Rolling Stone, when the group disbanded following Garcia's untimely death, he took off for Hawaii and disappeared for awhile. Part of the reason for Kreutzmann's reclusive period was to honor his word to his fallen bandmate and partly to get his health – and his head – back together. Surprisingly, he says that he believes the Grateful Dead were at the end of the line, even if Garcia had survived.

And while Kreutzmann toured off and on with Grateful Dead spinoff bands such as the Dead and the Other Ones throughout the following decade, it wasn't until much more recently that he finally found a musical project as satisfying as performing in the Grateful Dead proper. Last year, Kreutzmann formed 7 Walkers with bluesman Papa Mali, bassist George Porter Jr. (the Meters) and keyboardist Matt Hubbard (Willie Nelson). Joined by special guest Steve Kimock on guitar – and featuring ample cameos from Karl Denson and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, among others – the group set sail on the high seas with Jam Cruise last week, performing a pair of shows on a sold-out ship bound for Haiti, Jamaica and all points jammed between. Between his sets with 7 Walkers and late-night appearances in the never-ending Jam Room, Kreutzmann sat down with Rolling Stone in the ship's wine bar to take a look back at yet another long strange trip.

The Grateful Dead are often credited as the forefathers of the jam band scene upon which the vibe of Jam Cruise is based. Can you talk about being one of the elder statesmen on the ship?
First of all, I love doing Jam Cruise. This is the second one I've done. I like doing it so much. The audience, the people on board are just as cool as can be and they're all into jam music. And I get to meet all these musicians that I don't normally get to hang with. So I get to rub shoulders and hang out with these different people and we get to play, like tonight in the Jam Room – it's going to be insane. I heard it's been kinda quiet in there the last few nights, so I figured I better show up. George Porter Jr. is going to show up and then Papa Mali too, so we'll get it raging in there; we'll warm it up.

Jam Cruise is sort of because of the jam scene, and the Grateful Dead often get complimented for starting the jam band scene. And maybe that is true, but in my head jazz musicians jammed forever, way before rock musicians. We might be one of the first rock bands to really jam and that might be the truth and that's cool; when I see all these new musicians playing great music and jamming like crazy, I'm really honored. It's not that I'm honored personally, I'm honored to the music – the music is being honored by musicians keeping it alive. And that's what I really like.

You've already been in one of the world's most successful bands – for three decades. You don't need to do anything for a living anymore. You could retire and live happily ever after. So why still do it?
I just don't see myself as retiring. As long as I'm healthy and can play the drums, that's what I'm going to do because that's the most fun thing that I know how to do. And to make people happy from playing music is the best reward you can have in your life – instead of being an insurance salesman or whatever, whatever, you know. Playing music is just one of the best things. I can't retire.

When Jerry left us in '95, besides being totally hurt and forlorn, basically lonesome, I was lost in every direction. I didn't know what to do. I went to Kauai mostly to heal. Jerry and I had this gentlemen's agreement that if the Grateful Dead ever stopped, we were both going to move to Hawaii. Unfortunately he couldn't keep his part of the deal, but I moved there after the Grateful Dead ended in the Summer of '95 because I needed to heal. I had really been burning hard and doing the things that everybody knows that rockers do on the road and this gave me a chance to really catch my breath and heal again. And get healthy. I surf and I got in much better shape and took care of my life. That was very, very important.

But the thing that was missing was a band that could fill the level that I like to have with music that the Grateful Dead did. And I don't mean a copy band of any sort; the bands that I played in afterward, the Dead and the Other Ones and all that, up until 2009, they were okay bands – the musicians were always really great – but I always missed one guy. I couldn't help that in my heart. The Grateful Dead without Jerry Garcia was like the Miles Davis Band without Miles Davis.

So, finally, 15 years after Jerry left, I got to meet Papa Mali. And that was like one of the most fortunate things to ever happen to me. My girlfriend Amy, who is now my wife, introduced me to Papa Mali. She played his music for me at home in Hawaii and I just went, "Oh man, that cat's for real!" And I've always loved New Orleans music. I always loved it when the Neville Brothers opened up for the Grateful Dead, and the Dirty Dozen and all that.

And finally I met a guy that I could totally believe in as a musician. As Jerry did, [Mali] has total knowledge of all kinds of music. He's got like 10,000 vinyl records, got them on every wall on his house, so knowledgeable and just a really wonderful person to play music with and he sings great and he's the one person I've heard sing Jerry songs that I really like his voice doing it. I mean, 7 Walkers doesn't have all the instrumentation that the Grateful Dead did, but I just like the way we approach it. What I'm getting at is that I've had to wait this long, 15 years, to really get back. And that's the reason I'm here on Jam Cruise; I'm back playing again with musicians I really believe in. And that's very important to me. These guys have got to be the guys or else I don't want to do it.

You say you can't retire from music. All of the other remaining members of the Grateful Dead seem to feel the same way. Do you think if Jerry Garcia was still around that the Grateful Dead would still be touring?
No, I don't think so. I think that Jerry had gotten kind of bored with the Grateful Dead, and it was sort of like a marriage that had maybe gone on too long. And other people in the band wanted to start to express themselves in their bands and so forth and so on, that I'm pretty sure Jerry would've stopped playing in the Grateful Dead. I think a lot of it, I hate to say, was really a financial obligation. He needed to earn the money for some things and that's too bad. But it's hard. He was a true artist and I can tell you he wasn't really happy playing in the Grateful Dead at the end. I hate to say that. I know the audience is going to hear me say that and go, "Oh, that's not true," but if people really think about some of the shows that were there in the last year and some of the troubles that poor Jerry had, they know that I'm not BS'ing.

I really like to go for the essence of things, the most beautiful parts of things, of human beings or of music. If there are things in there that are getting in the way and complicating it, it's just not good for me. It's hard for me, too. Once again, I said it earlier, but the reason I went to Hawaii was to heal those things.

In talking about the new Dave's Picks live release series, Grateful Dead archivist David Lemieux recently told Rolling Stone that he informs everyone in the band what the next live release will be. He sends them advance copies, but he's not sure any of the band members actually ever put them on. When a new live Grateful Dead release comes out, do you listen to it?
I do. And the one that comes to mind right away is the new Europe '72 [The Complete Recordings] release. I went back and listened and on a couple of the CDs in that set – there's one that has "The Other One" into some kind of jam back into "The Other One" – the music is just fantastic. It blows my mind to this moment. I like that music, the looser music like "Bird Song" or "The Other One," because they're really heavily jam-oriented. The Garcia songs are always my favorite, but the jam parts are really my favorite.

There's now even a Grateful Dead video game on the market. Do you pay attention to that stuff? I mean, the non-musical commercial releases, licensing and merchandising?
I don't always; some of it I do and some of it I don't. I trust David Lemieux a million percent and when he says something is worth going for, then I do it. And I don't have to listen to everything or get everything – my house would be awful full of stuff. Whatever it is: dog collars . . . there's a company now that makes Grateful Dead dog toys, and since I'm a dog lover and have dogs at home I said, "Yeah, go ahead."

While on Jam Cruise, do you go on shore and take advantage of the port stops?
I do. I got in the water today. We were in Haiti, and I got off at the port and went swimming at the designated beach, because the water is so warm; it's warmer than where I live in Hawaii right now . . . they had to drag me out of the water, just about.

Do you have a favorite Jam Cruise memory?
Yes, I do. It's from the last Jam Cruise I went on. It was after my last show with the Rhythm Devils – I played that cruise with the Rhythm Devils and Mickey Hart – and I went to the Jam Room after midnight and George [Porter Jr.] was holding court there, and I played with him for awhile. I got a little tired, and I stopped and then Johnny Vidacovich sat in, a fantastic drummer. And that guy, Johnny V., is the reason drumming is what it is in New Orleans today, a lot of it. A lot of really good studio stuff, too. George was holding court, playing in the Jam Room, and I couldn't leave. Me and Amy sat back there, we were beat, we actually sat back a bit off to the right side of the stage, behind it, and my jaw just dropped just listening to them play. So I remember that the most because that was just so much fun.

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Grateful Dead Drummer: Jerry Garcia 'Wasn’t Really Happy Playing' at Band's End

Grateful Dead's Bill Kreutzmann performs with 7 Walkers on Jam Cruise 10.

Leaving the Grateful Dead behind in 1995 was as much a defining force in drummer Bill Kreutzmann's life as was forming the band with Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan 30 years earlier. And, in some ways, he's still dealing with the fallout. As Kreutzmann discusses exclusively with Rolling Stone, when the group disbanded following Garcia's untimely death, he took off for Hawaii and disappeared for awhile. Part of the reason for Kreutzmann's reclusive period was to honor his word to his fallen bandmate and partly to get his health – and his head – back together. Surprisingly, he says that he believes the Grateful Dead were at the end of the line, even if Garcia had survived.

And while Kreutzmann toured off and on with Grateful Dead spinoff bands such as the Dead and the Other Ones throughout the following decade, it wasn't until much more recently that he finally found a musical project as satisfying as performing in the Grateful Dead proper. Last year, Kreutzmann formed 7 Walkers with bluesman Papa Mali, bassist George Porter Jr. (the Meters) and keyboardist Matt Hubbard (Willie Nelson). Joined by special guest Steve Kimock on guitar – and featuring ample cameos from Karl Denson and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, among others – the group set sail on the high seas with Jam Cruise last week, performing a pair of shows on a sold-out ship bound for Haiti, Jamaica and all points jammed between. Between his sets with 7 Walkers and late-night appearances in the never-ending Jam Room, Kreutzmann sat down with Rolling Stone in the ship's wine bar to take a look back at yet another long strange trip.

The Grateful Dead are often credited as the forefathers of the jam band scene upon which the vibe of Jam Cruise is based. Can you talk about being one of the elder statesmen on the ship?
First of all, I love doing Jam Cruise. This is the second one I've done. I like doing it so much. The audience, the people on board are just as cool as can be and they're all into jam music. And I get to meet all these musicians that I don't normally get to hang with. So I get to rub shoulders and hang out with these different people and we get to play, like tonight in the Jam Room – it's going to be insane. I heard it's been kinda quiet in there the last few nights, so I figured I better show up. George Porter Jr. is going to show up and then Papa Mali too, so we'll get it raging in there; we'll warm it up.

Jam Cruise is sort of because of the jam scene, and the Grateful Dead often get complimented for starting the jam band scene. And maybe that is true, but in my head jazz musicians jammed forever, way before rock musicians. We might be one of the first rock bands to really jam and that might be the truth and that's cool; when I see all these new musicians playing great music and jamming like crazy, I'm really honored. It's not that I'm honored personally, I'm honored to the music – the music is being honored by musicians keeping it alive. And that's what I really like.

You've already been in one of the world's most successful bands – for three decades. You don't need to do anything for a living anymore. You could retire and live happily ever after. So why still do it?
I just don't see myself as retiring. As long as I'm healthy and can play the drums, that's what I'm going to do because that's the most fun thing that I know how to do. And to make people happy from playing music is the best reward you can have in your life – instead of being an insurance salesman or whatever, whatever, you know. Playing music is just one of the best things. I can't retire.

When Jerry left us in '95, besides being totally hurt and forlorn, basically lonesome, I was lost in every direction. I didn't know what to do. I went to Kauai mostly to heal. Jerry and I had this gentlemen's agreement that if the Grateful Dead ever stopped, we were both going to move to Hawaii. Unfortunately he couldn't keep his part of the deal, but I moved there after the Grateful Dead ended in the Summer of '95 because I needed to heal. I had really been burning hard and doing the things that everybody knows that rockers do on the road and this gave me a chance to really catch my breath and heal again. And get healthy. I surf and I got in much better shape and took care of my life. That was very, very important.

But the thing that was missing was a band that could fill the level that I like to have with music that the Grateful Dead did. And I don't mean a copy band of any sort; the bands that I played in afterward, the Dead and the Other Ones and all that, up until 2009, they were okay bands – the musicians were always really great – but I always missed one guy. I couldn't help that in my heart. The Grateful Dead without Jerry Garcia was like the Miles Davis Band without Miles Davis.

So, finally, 15 years after Jerry left, I got to meet Papa Mali. And that was like one of the most fortunate things to ever happen to me. My girlfriend Amy, who is now my wife, introduced me to Papa Mali. She played his music for me at home in Hawaii and I just went, "Oh man, that cat's for real!" And I've always loved New Orleans music. I always loved it when the Neville Brothers opened up for the Grateful Dead, and the Dirty Dozen and all that.

And finally I met a guy that I could totally believe in as a musician. As Jerry did, [Mali] has total knowledge of all kinds of music. He's got like 10,000 vinyl records, got them on every wall on his house, so knowledgeable and just a really wonderful person to play music with and he sings great and he's the one person I've heard sing Jerry songs that I really like his voice doing it. I mean, 7 Walkers doesn't have all the instrumentation that the Grateful Dead did, but I just like the way we approach it. What I'm getting at is that I've had to wait this long, 15 years, to really get back. And that's the reason I'm here on Jam Cruise; I'm back playing again with musicians I really believe in. And that's very important to me. These guys have got to be the guys or else I don't want to do it.

You say you can't retire from music. All of the other remaining members of the Grateful Dead seem to feel the same way. Do you think if Jerry Garcia was still around that the Grateful Dead would still be touring?
No, I don't think so. I think that Jerry had gotten kind of bored with the Grateful Dead, and it was sort of like a marriage that had maybe gone on too long. And other people in the band wanted to start to express themselves in their bands and so forth and so on, that I'm pretty sure Jerry would've stopped playing in the Grateful Dead. I think a lot of it, I hate to say, was really a financial obligation. He needed to earn the money for some things and that's too bad. But it's hard. He was a true artist and I can tell you he wasn't really happy playing in the Grateful Dead at the end. I hate to say that. I know the audience is going to hear me say that and go, "Oh, that's not true," but if people really think about some of the shows that were there in the last year and some of the troubles that poor Jerry had, they know that I'm not BS'ing.

I really like to go for the essence of things, the most beautiful parts of things, of human beings or of music. If there are things in there that are getting in the way and complicating it, it's just not good for me. It's hard for me, too. Once again, I said it earlier, but the reason I went to Hawaii was to heal those things.

In talking about the new Dave's Picks live release series, Grateful Dead archivist David Lemieux recently told Rolling Stone that he informs everyone in the band what the next live release will be. He sends them advance copies, but he's not sure any of the band members actually ever put them on. When a new live Grateful Dead release comes out, do you listen to it?
I do. And the one that comes to mind right away is the new Europe '72 [The Complete Recordings] release. I went back and listened and on a couple of the CDs in that set – there's one that has "The Other One" into some kind of jam back into "The Other One" – the music is just fantastic. It blows my mind to this moment. I like that music, the looser music like "Bird Song" or "The Other One," because they're really heavily jam-oriented. The Garcia songs are always my favorite, but the jam parts are really my favorite.

There's now even a Grateful Dead video game on the market. Do you pay attention to that stuff? I mean, the non-musical commercial releases, licensing and merchandising?
I don't always; some of it I do and some of it I don't. I trust David Lemieux a million percent and when he says something is worth going for, then I do it. And I don't have to listen to everything or get everything – my house would be awful full of stuff. Whatever it is: dog collars . . . there's a company now that makes Grateful Dead dog toys, and since I'm a dog lover and have dogs at home I said, "Yeah, go ahead."

While on Jam Cruise, do you go on shore and take advantage of the port stops?
I do. I got in the water today. We were in Haiti, and I got off at the port and went swimming at the designated beach, because the water is so warm; it's warmer than where I live in Hawaii right now . . . they had to drag me out of the water, just about.

Do you have a favorite Jam Cruise memory?
Yes, I do. It's from the last Jam Cruise I went on. It was after my last show with the Rhythm Devils – I played that cruise with the Rhythm Devils and Mickey Hart – and I went to the Jam Room after midnight and George [Porter Jr.] was holding court there, and I played with him for awhile. I got a little tired, and I stopped and then Johnny Vidacovich sat in, a fantastic drummer. And that guy, Johnny V., is the reason drumming is what it is in New Orleans today, a lot of it. A lot of really good studio stuff, too. George was holding court, playing in the Jam Room, and I couldn't leave. Me and Amy sat back there, we were beat, we actually sat back a bit off to the right side of the stage, behind it, and my jaw just dropped just listening to them play. So I remember that the most because that was just so much fun.

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Jane's Addiction, the Roots Playing Rolling Stone Super Bowl Tailgate Party

Dave Navarro and Perry Farrell of Jane's Addiction perform during KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas in Universal City, California.

Rolling Stone has put together an all-star talent roster for the Volkswagen Rock & Roll Fan Tailgate Party just before the Super Bowl on February 5th in Indianapolis, with performances by Jane's Addiction and the Roots. Joining them on the bill as guest DJ will be ex-Fall Out Boy and current Black Cards member Pete Wentz.

The Tailgate Party follows the previous night's Rolling Stone concert with LMFAO, Gym Class Heroes, Lupe Fiasco and Cobra Starship.

Beloved for their parties – frontman Perry farrell founded Lollapalooza – their artistic sense and their showmanship, Jane's Addiction have turned their live show into performance art. At the core, though, is a band of exceptional musicianship, as seen on their critically acclaimed release of last year, The Great Escape Artist.

Just as Jane's are hailed in the alternative field, the Roots have been widely regarded for years as arguably the greatest live hip-hop band on the planet. Together, the two bands promise to dazzle Indy.

For further information and tickets go to www.rollingstonerockweekend.com.

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